Vertical form/fill/seal (VFFS) packaging systems have proven to be very useful in packaging a wide variety of food and non-food pumpable and/or flowable products. An example of such systems is the Onpack™ flowable food packaging system marketed by Cryovac/Sealed Air Corporation. The VFFS process is known to those of skill in the art, and described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,247 (Tsuruta et al), U.S. Pat. No. 4,656,818 (Shimoyama et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,411 (Su), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,808,010 (Vogan) all incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. In such a process, lay-flat thermoplastic film is advanced over a forming device to form a tube, a longitudinal (vertical) fin or lap seal is made, and a bottom end seal is made by transversely sealing across the tube with heated seal bars. A flowable product is introduced through a central, vertical fill tube to the formed tubular film. The pouch is then completed by sealing the upper end of the tubular segment, and severing the pouch from the tubular film above it. The process can be a two-stage process where the creation of a transverse heat seal occurs at one stage in the process, and then, downstream of the first stage, a separate pair of cooling/clamping means contact the just-formed transverse heat seal to cool and thus strengthen the seal. In some VFFS processes, an upper transverse seal of a first pouch, and the lower transverse seal of a following pouch, are made, and the pouches cut and thereby separated between two portions of the transverse seals, without the need for a separate step to clamp, cool, clamp, cool, and cut the seals. A commercial example of an apparatus embodying this more simplified process is the Onpack™ 2050A VFFS packaging machine marketed by Cryovac/Sealed Air Corporation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,793 (Stern), incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses a coupling means 6a which is mounted on the inside wall of a pouch. Such coupling means, or fitment, offer several advantages in packaging food products, such as the capability of connecting the fitment to a pumping device. This permits the contents of the package to be dispensed in a controllable way. The particular coupling device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,793 is mounted inside the pouch. This arrangement avoids the disadvantages associated with externally mounted fitments. These include the difficulty of properly packing multiple pouch units, and the possibility that an external fitment will be damaged during handling/storage. If this happens, the food or other pouch contents can possibly leak out. Packaging systems combining the Onpack (™) system with the fitment technology of U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,793 have proven effective in providing a pouch making system where the pouch, containing a food product, includes an internal fitment. The internal fitment is typically near one end of the pouch (see e.g. FIG. 1 of the '793 patent) to ensure that the contents of the pouch are directed, e.g. by gravity, toward and pumped from and through the internal fitment by a suitable pump dispensing system.
One preferred method and apparatus for installing internal fitments of the type disclosed by Stern, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,581 (Everette), incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
In contrast, in the food service industry, including retail fast food restaurants and the like, syrups and toppings are typically dispensed from relatively small stainless steel or plastic product wells. These wells are typically manually filled by store employees. These wells are usually in one of two arrangements. In the first arrangement, the well is manually filled with a food product, such as flavored toppings, sauces, liquid condiments of various viscosities (ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, etc.), and the like. The employee spoons out a more or less appropriate amount of the food product as needed. This arrangement can sometimes be accessed directly by the restaurant customer.
An alternative arrangement is to include a cover, typically made of stainless steel, having a portion control pump fitted therein. Such systems are available from Server, Perfection, and other food service equipment suppliers. After manual filling of a well, a cover carrying or accommodating a pump is dropped onto the top of the well. The pump is conventional in nature for this application, and those skilled in the art will be familiar with the various makes and models of pumps and their operation, so that further details are not provided herein. After filling the product well and installing the cover and pump, the pump can be activated as needed, e.g. manually, to dispense a preferably controlled portion of the syrup, topping, or other product from the well, through the pump, and onto a plate, food product, etc.
This system for dispensing syrups, toppings, and the like suffers from several problems.
First, these product wells tend to be small in volume, typically about 0.5 gallons, so that they require frequent refilling in high-use environments.
Second, in conventional systems the refilling is accomplished by pouring product from rigid or semirigid containers such as cans or jugs. When an employee of the restaurant, particularly an inexperienced one, is attempting a refill, the process can be a messy one as product misses the well, overflows past the top of the well, etc.
A third problem associated with conventional systems is the need to periodically clean the well. When very viscous and/or high sugar content products are being used, properly cleaning the well can be a labor intensive, time consuming, and difficult task.
Finally, product freshness becomes an issue when the product is disposed in the well for an extended period of time. This is aggravated by conditions where the product is dispensed at relatively high temperatures, where evaporation through long exposure to high temperatures significantly and adversely affects the quality of the product.
The inventor has found that these problems of the prior art can be solved by a system that utilizes a pouch with a fitment, preferably an internal fitment, that is preferably substantially centrally (geometrically) located on an external or internal surface of the pouch. Such a pouch can be interfaced with a conventional portion control pump or other suitable pumping system, and inserted in a U-shaped arrangement or substantially U-shaped arrangement in a product well. A well of e.g. 0.5 gallons can thus accommodate a pouch of about 0.5 gallons, while ensuring excellent evacuation rates (compared with conventional product pumping systems as described above). Tests with water as the product have demonstrated that the pouch essentially completely collapses around the fitment as the pouch is evacuated by activating the portion control pump.
An advantage of the invention is that no manual refilling of the product is necessary. When an installed pouch is empty, the emptied pouch is simply removed form the well, and disengaged from the pump, and a full pouch is installed by inserting a piercing nozzle, connected to or to be connected to a pump device, into the area of the pouch defined by the fitment, folding the connected pouch in a generally U-shape, and pushing the pouch down into the product well.
The labor intensive cleaning of the well is substantially eliminated because the pouch material shields the internal surface of the well from direct content with the food product.
Finally, optimal product freshness is promoted by maintaining the product in an enclosed pouch throughout its useful life. Food pouches are often made from high oxygen barrier materials, and offer extended shelf life for food products contained in the pouch.